The twenty-second international Klezmer Festival opened Monday night in Tzfat (Safed). The event, lasting three nights and including open-air performances by the leading Klezmer musicians in the world, is expected to draw tens of thousands of people to the mystical northern city.
Video: The 2008 Klezmer Festival
The festival's 100 performances will all be free of charge and are divided among eight different stages set up throughout Tzfat. Performers and visitors include Jews and non-Jews, secular, religious and hareidi Israelis, as well as many non-Israelis.
According to Tzfat Mayor Ilan Shochat, the Klezmer Festival is the largest and most well-attended of all festivals in Israel, which includes a wide array of nationally promoted summer festivals. He added that the Klezmer Festival transforms the city into the international capital of Jewish culture.
Due to the large crowds, an increased police contingent has been deployed to provide security for the event. The roads into Tzfat are closed at around 4:00 p.m. to accommodate the citywide foot traffic. Parking lots for guests have been set up outside the city.
Among the overseas bands in Tzfat for the festival are Italy Klezmer, the Paris Trio and Vilna Klezmer, as well as musicians from Hungary, Poland, the United States and Australia. The French trio is slated to play with famed Israeli musician and singer Ariel Zilber.
Other Israeli performers include Musa Berlin, violin virtuosos Eyal Shiloach and Alex Slutzky, famed clarinetist Hanan Bar-Sela, Aharon Razel, Sinai Tor, Yishai Lapidot and the Kinderlach, HaBreira HaTiv'it, and more. In addition, there will be all-girl klezmer bands, a unique combined Arab-Jewish klezmer band, a free-admission children's stage with stories and songs, and a nightly musical gathering dedicated to the Torah and music of the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach at the Beirav Synagogue. For the dedicated night owls, Dov and Ita Zilberman will be playing music in the Meginim Square into the wee hours.
Alongside the musical experience, the Jewish National Fund is offering daily tours in the city and environs. The Jewish revival organization Ascent is also offering city tours, as well as daily workshops in Jewish philosophy, mysticism, education and belief. 
The Klezmer Festival transforms the city into the international capital of Jewish culture.
Israel Radio's Channel 3 (Reshet Gimmel), the all-Israeli music channel, and Heritage Radio(Reshet Moreshet), will combine their programming for eight hours of broadcasting, some of them simultaneous, on the final evening of the festival. Among the concluding performances will be a joint appearance on one stage of most of the artists.
Klezmer (from the Yiddish word for "musical instruments") combines Jewish musical styles dating back to the 15th century, mixed in with some more contemporary aspects. The original Klezmer festivals focused on the traditional music, but other types of Jewish "soul music" have become a fixture of the festival in recent years.
For more information on the Klezmer Festival or Tzfat, call +972-4-692-7484/5. For information about the JNF tours, call 1-800-350-550. And for Ascent, call 1-800-30-40-70.